Nested plutons as megageopetal structures: The Merrimac plutons, northern Sierra Nevada, California

Abstract Contacts within nested plutons are crucial for constraining the relative timing of pluton emplacement and the internal geometry of composite plutons. Exposures in orogenic belts are commonly discontinuous, however, disguising these contacts. In this paper, the Merrimac plutons in the northern Sierra Nevada of California are used as an example of how composition and foliation patterns can allow the definition of unexposed contacts and identify nested plutons. Image analysis techniques were used to determine modal compositions of a total of 52 samples from the Merrimac plutons. The integrated analysis of compositional data and foliations patterns reveals a critical contact within the plutons, and suggests that the Merrimac plutons indicate way‐up towards the north‐east at the time of emplacement 142 ± 3 Ma ago. This paper provides guidelines for recognizing nested plutons in poorly exposed areas and shows that consistent structural and compositional assymmetries within nested plutons can be used as regional top‐direction indicators.